Generally, photographic print paper is exposed through a negative image bearing film and through a transparent negative original for forming a character image and then developed to obtain a photographic print having a photographic continuous tone image and a character image. This transparent negative original is ordinarily prepared using a computer phototypesetting machine.
It takes time and also requires a special apparatus to prepare the transparent original using a computer phototypesetting machine. Therefore, it is practically impossible for individuals to print different characters on different photographic print paper or to print a character image on a photograph.
Recently, it has been possible for individuals to compose and edit a photographic continuous tone image and a character image on a terminal display using a computer and output edited images using an ink jet printer or a thermal transfer printer. Regarding the character image, particularly a heat fusible thermal transfer printer can provide a high quality character image with no contour blur, however, regarding photographic continuous tone images, there has not been proposed an output method to compare with that of a silver halide photographic process.
High quality photographic continuous tone images and character image can be easily obtained at low cost by combining a high quality image from a silver halide photographic process with a character image from a heat fusible thermal transfer process, however, adhesion between a heat fusible thermal transfer ink and a gelatin layer on the surface of a photographic print paper is poor, and the formed image is not durable enough. Further, in order to form a high quality metallic color image, particularly a gold image, using a heat fusible thermal transfer ink, better ink transferability is required, but conventional methods are insufficient to form such images.